Acheivement Unlocked: Aunt Status!

I am super excited for this FO Friday as I can finally share a few items that have been under wraps for a while.  My niece, Violet, made her arrival last weekend and she is just wonderful. Little Violet is surrounded by a great number of handcrafters – her crib has a beautiful quilt and her closet is already stocked with hand-knit sweaters and dresses (her mom and grandy are knitters). Of course I also want to make things for my niece too, so I am taking on toys. To start, I made a little doll. When I finished this item, Lorelai saw it and wanted one, so I’ll take that as a compliment. The instructions to crochet this were straightforward and it worked up pretty quickly. I used Sublime Organic DK for all of it. It’s a bit hard to see in my photo here, but the hairstyle is a bun, and I went with a simple light purple dress. I think it’s a little Jane Austen-ish, which works as Mom is a fan. I would make this pattern again, and I would like to make the fairy version too.

When I started knitting I first made baby hats and I had my eye on the flower hat pattern for ages. I tried the original pattern, written bottom up – so you make the petals first – but my gauge wasn’t quite right, it was too open in between the stitches. I put it aside for a while and when the top-down version was released I gave it another go. Lucky for me it worked! The hat has a little bit of stretch, and it fits her now (enough for a photo anyway). I blocked it over the glass carafe of a small french press; I wet it and pinned the petals back to add a bit of curl.

It is so much fun to consider other baby patterns again! I’m looking forward to many more toys and accessories.